The past-producing Hemerdon tungsten mine moved a step closer to re-opening after the project's developer secured 55 million pounds in bank loans.

First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM), is going to court over a disputed labour agreement at its Zambia copper mine, after talks between the company and unions collapsed.

RepRisk, a provider of business intelligence on environmental, social and governance risks, released a report this week on the 10 most controversial mining companies of 2011.

Able-bodied welfare recipients in southern British Columbia will receive moving and training assistance so they can fill jobs in Northern B.C.

The Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining in the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland has released a study that proposes greater involvement of women in the mining industry, reports the Roxby Downs Sun.

It said, “the largest, mostly untapped, labour pool available to the industry is women.”

Mining Weekly: Though efforts are being made to remedy the shortage of engineers in the South African coal industry, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Mining Engineering head Professor Fred Cawood says that not enough is being done to meet demand for skilled technicians and artisans.

“This challenge will not be sorted out unless significant investment is made into further education and training colleges,” says Cawood.

Thousands of informal miners suspended their indefinite protest in the gold-rich Peru’s Madre de Dios region after three gold miners were killed in clashes with police yesterday.

State-run Korea Resources Corp. (KORES) is planning to invest at least US$532 million (600 billion won) in mining projects abroad this yea, particularly in the coal sector of Indonesia and North America, reports Bloomberg.

Canada’s North will be leading the country in economic growth over the next two years as a boom in mining projects takes hold, says the Conference Board of Canada’s Territorial Outlook-Winter 2012 study, reports CBC.